Weaste Cemetery

Biographies of people buried between 1857 & 1869

Leopold Reiss (1803 - 1857)


Leopold Reiss was a Merchant, mainly an importer from China, a member of the Manchester Commercial Association and the 2nd person buried at Weaste Cemetery.

 

He was born on 11th September 1803 in Germany and his parents were Israel Elias and Bertha Reiss. His wife Caroline was also born in Germany, so it is assumed that they were married in Germany. Their first child Helena was born in 1833 in Lancashire, so it would appear that they arrived in England before that date. An interesting record shows that Leopold was baptised on 25th April 1849 (when he would have been 46-years-old), at Upper Brook Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchester.

 

In 1841 Leopold and Caroline lived at Crumpsall Crescent, Crumpsall, Manchester, (which was not far from Cheetham Hill Road). Their children were Helena (born 9th June 1833 and baptised on 29th January 1836 at Mosley Street Unitarian Chapel), Emily (born 22nd October 1834 and baptised on 29th January 1836 at Mosley Street Unitarian Chapel), James Edward (born 4th April 1836 and baptised on 9th August 1836 at Mosley Street Unitarian Chapel), and Frances Mathilde (born 31st August 1837 and baptised on 8th December 1837 at Upper Brook Street Unitarian Chapel, Chorlton-upon-Medlock). Then Frederick Augustus (born 4th November 1843 and baptised on 29th May 1844 at Upper Brook Street Unitarian Chapel), Henry Leopold (born 1845 in Pendleton and baptised on 24th December 1845), and Charles Arthur (born 23rd September 1851 and baptised 24th December 1851 at Upper Brook Street Chapel). (The Mosley Street Chapel closed in 1836 and moved to Upper Brook Street). At this time they lived at Broom House, Eccles Old Road, Pendleton.

 

Leopold was the head of the company, Messrs Leopold Reiss, Bothers and Co, with interests in importing goods from China. He was a member of the Manchester Commercial Association and was elected to its board of directors in 1840. Newspaper reports show that Leopold was part of delegations of businessmen to Government officers in London: in 1846 to see the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell regarding reduction of duty on tea; in 1852 to see the Postmaster General to improve mail services to Manchester; and in 1855 to see the Earl of Clarendon at the Foreign Office regarding customs duties at Shanghai.

 

Leopold had the pleasure of seeing his first two children get married. In 1854 Helena married Michael Sichel who was a Merchant, at Chorlton-upon-Medlock, by Registrar. On 12th June 1856 Emily married George Osborne Morgan at St Mary the Virgin Church in Eccles. George was a Barrister and became Liberal MP for Denbighshire East. He was appointed Judge Advocate-General, Privy Councillor, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies at the Foreign Office, and amongst other measures he carried through the Burials Act of 1880. However, Leopold was to die in 1857 and was the 2nd person to be buried at Weaste Cemetery, in an A plot vault. He was 54 years old.

 

The 1871 Census shows that Caroline continued to live at Broom House, Eccles Old Road, Pendleton. However, by 1881, she had moved to Westminster, London, and she died on 10th January 1893 at Swyncombe, Henley-on-Thames, in her 80th year.